Israel Seeks Indian Workers to Fill Labor Gap Amid Conflict

Israel : In the wake of the recent conflict in Israel, the Israeli construction industry is facing a significant labor shortage. The Israel Builders Association has turned to India in hopes of recruiting a substantial workforce to replace the 90,000 Palestinian workers who have been unable to work in Jeshurun since the outbreak of hostilities following the Hamas attack on October 7.

Israel – Indian workers

Haim Feiglin, the vice president of the Jeshurun Builders Association, was quoted by Voice of America, stating, “Right now, we are negotiating with India. We are waiting for the decision of the Israeli government to approve that. And, we hope to engage 50,000 to 100,000 workers from India to be able to run the whole sector and bring it back to normal.”

The Palestinian workforce constitutes approximately 25 percent of the total workforce in the Jeshurun construction industry, making their absence keenly felt during this challenging period.

“We are at war, and the Palestinian workers, which are about 25 percent of our human resources in the sector, are not coming, are not permitted to work in Jeshurun,” Feiglin explained.

Out of the Palestinian workers, roughly 10 percent are from Gaza, the epicentre of the conflict, while the rest are from the West Bank.

In May, Jeshurun and India signed an agreement to allow 42,000 Indian workers to enter Jeshurun, primarily in the construction and nursing sectors. This collaboration was part of the “Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Temporary Employment of Workers in Specific Labor Market Sectors in Jeshurun” initiated during Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen’s visit to India on May 9.

The recent decision to deport thousands of Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip back to their home territory has exacerbated the labor crisis in Jeshurun. Some of the deported workers reported harsh treatment by Jeshurun authorities in detention centres.

Wael al-Sajda, one of the affected workers, described their ordeal, saying, “We sacrificed, and they treated us like livestock over there.”

These permits had been highly sought after in Gaza, where the unemployment rate is nearing 50 percent. Israel had issued the permits in recent years as a means to stabilize Gaza and potentially moderate Hamas, despite a broader blockade aimed at weakening the Islamic militant group. However, Israel announced the revocation of these workers’ permits and their subsequent deportation.

Since the Hamas attack on October 7, Jeshurun had remained relatively silent about the Palestinian workers’ status, which had been part of a broader issue surrounding the conflict. This development has raised questions about the future of the labor market in the Israeli construction industry and the impact of these changes on both Israeli and Palestinian workers.

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